


Explosive Secrets

by Tallihensia



Category: Smallville
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-25
Updated: 2014-01-25
Packaged: 2018-01-09 22:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1151772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallihensia/pseuds/Tallihensia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An explosion reveals secrets that Lex would have preferred to remain concealed.  Now that they were revealed, however, Clark was determined to be a part of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Explosive Secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [twilightHDfan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilightHDfan/gifts).



> **Disclaimer:** Only mine in my dreams. This story was written for free entertainment purposes only and may not be reproduced for profit or altered without permission.
> 
>  **Warnings:** none 
> 
> **Notes:** This was written for the [Clexmas Holiday Gift Exchange](http://clexmas.livejournal.com/90568.html), for TwilightHDfan. The request was for a gift with Conner in it and a happy ending. I was originally going to go with one of the more detailed prompts but that story got too long. And then this one grew too. Hope you like it!

## Explosive Secrets

"Industry analysts are still reeling from the idea that you didn't rebid on the four government contracts last month. LexCorp was easily the front runner on each of those projects, and it's unlikely that the companies that did win the bids can do as much work as you had previously. Can you explain why LexCorp didn't bid?" Clark had the recorder running, but he also held his pen poised over the pad of paper to take his own notes. He liked doing both; his notes gave him the direction, and the recorder gave him accuracy on the quotes.

Lex leaned easily in his chair and smiled at Clark. "While government weapons research has always been good money for LexCorp, we announced two years ago that we were moving out of that line of work and concentrating our assets in the medical and scientific arenas. Doing less work for the DoD and more for the DoE, as it were. With that much time to run on the still existing contracts, I'm not surprised that people didn't take our announcement seriously. However, we made that change in direction in earnest.

"We needed those years in order to prepare our employees and make arrangements for them in other sectors when the contracts ran out. Our employees have all planned out their transitions with our human resources division, either transferring to other branches within LexCorp, taking new jobs at the companies that won the bids, or taking our generous retirement package. We will leave no families in want right before the Christmas season."

Clark had to admit that Lex did sincerity well. It sounded good in person and would also sound good on paper. But then, the silky charisma and smooth words had always been part of Lex's success. Despite his ambitions, despite his razor-sharp intelligence, despite the horrible "training" his father had given him, he wouldn't be where he was today if it wasn't for the charm. He would still be deadly and LexCorp would still be at the top of the world, but there wouldn't have been the sheer fascination the public had with the company and its owner. It would have just been another company like the others, not a newsworthy subject to rival Superman. It was the force of the personality of the man at the top that created that.

"What about..." Clark asked another question. Lex answered. The dance went on.

The thing was, LexCorp _had_ changed, and so had its owner. Tracing it back, Clark thought it was about four or five years ago. The most notable thing for him personally had been the cessation of the War On Superman, as Clark thought of it. Lex had stopped the petty aggravations, the periodic potshots, and even quit bad-mouthing Superman in public. His secret labs had either been dismantled or hidden even further underground than Clark could find on a casual search. The associations with criminal elements were dropped one by one until Clark wasn't even sure if any were left.

And Clark had no idea why. There was nothing that he could see, nothing that he could find, nothing that anyone else could point to. When questioned, Lex simply smiled and gave back the same sort of public patter that he was doing now. Superman himself had gotten nothing more than, "You're not worth my time," which Clark had to admit had rankled.

He'd dug into records, Lois had dug into records, Chloe had dug into records, and none of them had found anything. LexCorp had definitely shifted over to the medical and biological research areas – not that they didn't have a fairly substantial interest in those areas already. Yet nobody could figure out why.

Lex had also dropped out of the public office business. Everybody had been sure that five years before he'd been working towards a political career – collecting his resources, lining up his support, paying his bribes and smoothing the right palms and ears to advance his cause. Then... he stopped. Nothing as obvious as dropping out of the whole arena completely – he stayed in, talked his talk, walked his walk, but he didn't angle for the career anymore. Maintained his contacts and leveraged them for LexCorp advantage, but nobody now mentioned his name as a possible future political candidate. Five years ago, it would have been obvious.

Again, though, nobody knew why. Lex never answered a question on it, didn't offer explanations, didn't come out with a wife number five or a boy toy on the side. He just went on with his smooth life and business and deflected any thoughts that he'd ever done things differently.

Today's interview wasn't helping to clear anything up either. It all _sounded_ good, and they were answers to the questions offered, but none of it explained the whole.

Clark abruptly stopped in the middle of one of his prepared questions and sat silent for a moment. Across from him, Lex raised an eyebrow.

Reaching out, Clark turned off the recorder, powering it down completely so there wasn't even a chance that it could be recording.

He looked up to find Lex still watching him, waiting.

"Why?" Clark asked finally. He spread his hands out, trying to convey the sincerity of his question. He probably didn't do it was well as Lex, but he also really meant it.

Lex watched him for a minute more, then stood and walked to the windows overlooking Metropolis. Sheer glass from floor to ceiling across the entire side of that room. It was always disconcerting, especially when Lex was so close to it as he was now. Clark always had to refrain himself from rushing out to rescue Lex from the edge. It was an illusion, just as much of Lex was.

"It was time for a change," Lex said softly, his voice barely carrying to where Clark sat.

Clark waited, but there was nothing more. "That's not much of an answer," he said.

"It is the only one I am prepared to give, even off the record," Lex replied. Though he didn't turn around so Clark could see his face, Clark could hear the grin in his voice, and it didn't sound mocking, but rather a genuine amusement. It made Clark think back, nostalgically, for the times when they were young and Lex had laughed with him over silly and trivial stuff.

"Change, Clark, is the cornerstone of ---"

Lex's words were interrupted by an explosion in the city. The sound penetrated through the barriers in Lex's office, and the flash could be seen through the windows.

Clark was up in an instant, squinting to look. It was bad. It was a two-story industrial building, and there were flames coming out of all the windows he could see. He would have to go, but what sort of an excuse...

A panel in the windows opened, exposing the 64th floor to the swirl of wind this high up. Clark hadn't even known the windows could open.

"Take me there," Lex commanded, stepping close to Clark.

"I... What?" It wasn't that Clark was particularly surprised that Lex knew his identity – he'd always thought Lex might, it was the sheer intensity of the command that took his breath away.

"Now!" Lex sounded almost frantic. "I have to be there! Take me there, now!"

One second for the decision, then Clark superspeeded out of his mundane suit, leaving it crumpled in a heap on Lex's floor and the red and blue one exposed. He grabbed Lex around the waist and then they were both flying out the window.

Up close, the damage was just as bad. Several adjacent buildings had also caught fire from the force of the blast. The only good thing, that Clark could see, was that the initial building itself appeared to be deserted, no one in it. The rescue work could concentrate on the nearby buildings instead. Fire engines could be heard already responding.

Clark set Lex down and prepared to rush to the other areas, but Lex clung to him.

"Inside!"

Clark blinked. "No."

Lex was wild-eyed and pale. "You have to get me inside! He's alone in there!"

He? Clark x-rayed the building again. "There's nobody in there."

"It's lead-shielded!" Lex spat out. "Let's go!"

"Tell me where." Clark tried to disengage from Lex without hurting him. "It's too dangerous in there for you." The smoke and flames would kill any human at this point.

"You have to take me. The codes have to be entered to disengage, and there's kryptonite in there too." Lex was firm and unwavering.

Of course there was. One of Lex's projects. He hadn't quit all of them after all. Clark wavered. Every moment that they stood here talking was another moment wasted, and there were other people in danger too. But Lex had never asked anything from him before and he'd said there was somebody there.

"Please." A tear slipped down the edge of Lex's cheek, and his voice shook. "Please. For Conner. Not for me. For him."

Who was Conner? Clark hadn't even known Lex was in love with somebody else. A great grief tore through him for lost chances, though they had rightfully been lost years and years before. He took off his cape and wrapped Lex in it, picking him up and protecting him as much as he could. "Direct me," he said simply.

"Exact middle of the building, subfloor below. Entrance is on the south side. Don't punch through the walls – there's delicate electronics that are important to the matrix in them and I don't have time to tell you where the safe spots are."

Inside, the fire was hot and fierce. Clark recognized the work of accelerants in the flames. Obviously not for the insurance, if it was Lex's building.

He barreled through the building, trying not to knock down supporting walls, looking for the entrance to the secret lab. He could feel Lex's rapid heartbeat against him.

There. Clark paused at the hidden door and blew the flames away from the surrounding area.

Lex came out of his arms and then yelped involuntarily as his feet touched the ground. Instantly, Clark picked him up again and directed a stream of cooling breath at the floor and the walls. He couldn't do anything about the smoke, though. His breath simply blew it around, but it was everywhere.

As soon as it was cool enough to walk, Lex was on the ground again and typing a code in on the panel, presenting his eye for a retina scan. He had a scrap of fabric over his mouth, but coughed all the same. Clark wished there was a way to better protect him.

The hidden door opened and they went in, closing the door behind them. Inside, the room had been protected from the flames, almost bunker-like in its solidity. Not truly a bunker, though, as smoke filled the room in here as well. The air was slightly cleaner, but obviously had been on the same ventilation system. Clark breathed another cooling breath through the room, making sure it was safe. He eyed the area, already feeling some of the kryptonite that Lex had said was in there.

Clark hated kryptonite, and he hated kryptonite experiments. Apparently Lex wasn't truly reformed. Quietly, Clark sighed. He'd so wanted to believe in the change.

Lex was over at a lead-lined horizontal tube, human size, typing in more codes.

"Procedure in process. Authorization required to interrupt. Caution. Caution. Procedure in process."

"I know it's in process, you hunk of junk! Emergency override." Lex muttered as he kept typing into the control pad, interspersed with coughing.

Clark knelt down on the floor where there was still clean air, away from the smoke that rose to the ceiling. He drew in a large breath, blowing it out Lex's way, trying to create a pocket of clean air near Lex; if not free from the smoke, then at least less smoky and with more oxygen.

Finally, the tube opened, cracking along the horizontal edge and lifting up like a coffin. Clark winced as the kryptonite feel intensified, making him stagger though he wasn't near. He could hear the sounds of pained gasps from inside the tube – a body in pain.

"My brave Kon," Lex murmured, reaching into the tube.

"Is it done, Daddy?" A high-pitched young voice came from the tube.

Clark's mouth dropped open.

Lex grunted as he hefted into his arms a young child. The boy was bigger than a toddler, but smaller than school kids. Clark didn't have much skill in guessing children's ages. He had rich black hair and bright blue eyes, and he was looking around at the smoke in the lab. "Daddy... what's wrong?"

"We have to go." Lex gripped the child tightly, even as he jerked his chin to Clark. Lex's skin color was close to grey, and there was a continuous wheeze in his voice and breath.

Clark stepped towards them, then stopped. "The kryptonite, Lex. I won't be able to fly if it's on me."

The boy had green gel dropping off his body, and he too was wincing, obviously in pain. Clark couldn't believe that Lex had been experimenting on his own son.

"Right." Lex strode with the boy to a nearby shower station. "Cool the water as it comes out." He toggled the switch one-handed.

Amazingly enough, water actually came out. The supply pipes for it must have been under the building and not part of the regular structure. Clark directed his breath towards the nozzle and Lex stepped under it, still holding the child. The water rinsed the gel off both the child and where Lex had gotten it on himself while holding him.

Lex shut off the water and turned towards Clark.

Just then, there was the sound of several explosions and the entire building rocked, ceiling panels falling and one of the walls collapsing in. The fire roared in through the opening.

Clark lunged to catch the wall before it could smash Lex and the child, blowing his breath against the flames to keep them from coming in, trying not to suck out the oxygen in the room at the same time.

"Dad!"

Clark craned his head to look and saw that one of the cabinets on the wall had come loose and fallen. Lex had protected the child by putting himself between him and it, and now he was pinned, though the child had gotten out.

If Clark let go of the wall to pull the cabinet off, then the wall would come down... Super speed didn't always make up the difference in unstable physics either. He hated this sort of dilemma, and it happened entirely too often.

Then the child lifted the cabinet off Lex and tossed it to one side.

Clark gaped, unable for a moment to process it.

"Good job, Kon," Lex said weakly, coughing as he sat up. "Go help Superman with the wall."

The kid darted over, moving a little faster than a normal human. He put his hands up on the wall under Clark's. With a gulp, Clark moved back, letting the kid hold it up by himself. There was the question of whether to fix the wall as it was and seal them in again, or just take advantage of the opening and get out of there.

"Lex?" Clark asked. Then he clarified, "Do we need to do anything else here?"

Lex was trying to get up, but too weak to do so. He focused his gaze on the child. His child? Clark suddenly wasn't as sure.

"Get us out," Lex hoarsely ordered.

Clark flew to Lex and wrapped him up in the cape again, leaving a fold loose so he could wrap the child in as well. He wasn't so sure at this point it would be necessary, but he wasn't about to chance it.

He grabbed the child and then he flew out as quickly as he could, zooming through the flames so quickly they bent around him and didn't have time to touch the humans he carried. Well, the people he carried.

Outside, Clark hovered in the air, unfolding the cape so that Lex and the child had a chance to breathe. He looked around for where the nearest ambulances were. There were a few of them gathered in the streets near the fire trucks, ready in case people needed help. So far, it looked like they were unused except for a few smoke inhalation cases. The nearby buildings had also been industrial, and apparently had excavated okay when their fire alarms had gone off. The firemen were battling the flames on those buildings, but hadn't tried for this one, writing it off as a loss and concentrating their efforts where it would do good.

People were starting to notice him up in the air now.

Lex was coughing almost unceasingly and Clark didn't like the sound of his heartbeat. Between the amount of smoke he'd inhaled, the ferocity of the heat, and that last cabinet, Lex needed to be seen by medical. No matter how quickly he healed, he still needed some help, just like the rest of them.

"I'll drop you off at an ambulance, unless you want a hospital," Clark offered. He could help the firemen, but it wasn't so urgent that he couldn't take some extra time for Lex.

"Keep..." Lex coughed, then hawked and spat out some dark phlegm, clearing his throat temporarily. "Keep Conner with you. The media can't connect him with me yet." He turned his head to look at the child. "Conner, stay with Superman. Just like when you and Hope went to the zoo. He'll take care of you for the day and I'll see you again tonight."

"Lex," Clark protested, "I can't---"

Lex twisted in his arms and looked right at him. "Please."

Why didn't Clark have to power to resist such a simple word? He swallowed.

"Okay, Daddy." Conner sounded quite cheerful. Unafraid and sure that everything would be okay.

Clark had met a lot of children in the course of his Superman career. This was the sound of a child that had never known anything but love. His heart turned over. "Okay," he whispered in the wake of the child's answer.

He flew to an ambulance and dropped Lex off. "Smoke inhalation and compression injuries," he told the EMTs. He'd worked with them before and he knew these two to be top of their field.

Re-wrapping Conner in his cape, he flew up again, and paused, looking over the fires and making sure again that they didn't need him.

Below, the media snapped pictures and called out questions, all of which he ignored.

Everything would be okay. He flew off, Lex's child in his arms.

After a few minutes of flying, Clark realized he didn't actually have any place to go. He couldn't go back to Lex's office, not now. He couldn't go to his apartment, not with the child. He couldn't go to the Fortress, too far while carrying the child.

He paused over a park, looking down at the mostly peaceful city. There was a spot temporarily free of people. He landed there and put the child down, leaving the cape around him. Clothes. He needed to get the child clothes. How did you get clothes for children? Without shopping for them, that was.

"Um, hi," he said awkwardly. "I'm Superman."

The child smiled, a tooth-filled grin bright and open. His dark hair was tousled all over and there were soot smudges on his face, but he was a beautiful child. Blue eyes. Lex's eyes. Clark wasn't sure just what was going on here.

"Hi! I’m Kon. I know you. You're the one Daddy says I can trust."

"Oh?" Clark said faintly.

Conner nodded rapidly. "You and Clakent. If there's ever trouble, I can go to you if Daddy's not around."

"Clakent?"

The child giggled. "Clark Kent," he enunciated more slowly. "He lives in the building across from Daddy's so he's easy to get to. Daddy said if I was anywhere else, to call for you."

There were hundreds of people calling Superman's name. He couldn't ever get to all of them, not always on time. He tried, but even super powers weren't always good enough. He gulped at the thought of this child ever being in so much trouble that he would have to call for Superman. But if he was Lex's child... Lex was probably right to train him so.

Clark Kent. That... that was unexpected. Clark closed his eyes briefly.

"Conner, how old are you?"

"Four!" He promptly shouted out. Then he lowered his voice in a confidence, "But I'll be five in March."

Five years of Lex changing his ways. Oh, Lex.

"Conner..." Clark hesitated, then decided to ask it anyway. "What's your full name?" Four year olds knew their full names, didn't they?

"Conner Jerome Joseph Luthor." The child answered without pause. "Though Daddy says I don't have to have that last name if I don't want it. I like the way it matches Daddy's, though, so it's mine."

"Oh," Clark whispered. "That's... that's a lot of names."

"Daddy says better to have too many names than too few. That I can chose who I want to be at any point in my life. I can be Conner or Kon or CJ or Joe or Lew or anybody at all! Daddy says I'm always his son, no matter who I am or what I want to be."

Lex was obviously _not_ going to raise his son the way Lionel had taught him. Acceptance, no matter what. Clark felt his eyes getting moist, and he hurried to the next question.

"Who's your Mommy?" Right after he said it, he winced. But he needed to ask. He knew he could ask Lex later, that it wasn't fair to be interrogating the child, but he just... he had to.

"I don't have a mommy," Conner said matter of factly. "I've got Daddy." He paused. "Though Daddy says that I have two daddies, but the second one is for later. I'll get him as a birthday present when I'm five."

Clark swallowed. "Oh," he said faintly. The kid was going to think he was an idiot if he didn't find something else to say. But he was done asking questions. He'd ask Lex the others, later.

For now... "What do you want to do?" he asked Conner.

The child's face lit up and he held his arms out to Clark. "I wanna fly."

...

At sunset, Clark flew back to Metropolis, Conner in his arms.

Lex was waiting on the penthouse roof.

In general, the roof was standard corporate build, with a helicopter pad and security and sections for the hvac systems and solar panels. However, there was a corner of it, about three times the size of a standard suburban back yard, that was sectioned off for the penthouse. There was greenery up there, and a fountain, and a patio, and a hot tub. All the comforts of home.

Before, when Lex would come out to meet Superman, he always did so on the LexCorp side, usually by the helicopter pad.

Clark had never been to the penthouse roof.

He landed and carefully placed Conner down. His arms felt empty once he'd released him.

"Daddy!" Conner dashed to his father, holding his arms up in both an invitation for a hug and to be picked up.

Lex knelt and took the full weight of the four-year old smashing into him with only a slight grunt. He wrapped his arms around him and bent his bare head over the black-haired child, holding him tight and enveloping him with obvious affection and love.

"Conner," he murmured as he picked up the child, taking the weight easily as he stood.

"Daddy, we flew and we flew and it was so awesome! Then we went to a farm and there were chickens and horses and cows. I got to sit on a horse! I was taller than anybody."

"Did you, now?" Lex said with amusement. "What was the horse's name?"

He walked with Conner to the stairs heading down to the penthouse proper.

Clark stood there and watched them go, his heart beating rapidly and hurting strangely.

Lex stopped and turned slightly, his blue eyes seeking out Clark's. "Come on. You can change inside. Did you all have dinner before coming here?"

"It was delicious! Mrs. Kent made apple pie." Conner saved Clark from a reply.

Lex, though, didn't move until Clark followed and joined him at the stairs. Then they went down together.

"I'm sure that's not _all_ she made for dinner," Lex teased.

Clark stayed mostly silent for the evening. He changed quietly into his work clothes that Lex had brought from earlier, leaving off the jacket and tie, and joined Lex and Conner for games, homework, tv watching, and some more games before it was finally Conner's bed time.

Conner's room was behind a secret panel. As was the cabinet with his games and his homework, and a special playroom. Everything Conner and Lex did together was tidied up behind them, leaving no obvious trace in the home that a child lived here.

Clark reflected that it was a sad way to live. Conner didn't seem to mind, and he obviously loved the secret panels and hidden things within the house.... Okay, Clark had to admit that at that age, he would have loved it too. Mini Fortresses, all for him.

Lex, though... Lex looked sad, as he picked up toys and put them away.

Of course, Lex had been looking sad most of the night, hiding it when with Conner, but otherwise looking at Clark as if Clark had taken away his puppy. Wasn't it on the other end? Shouldn't Clark be the one resenting Lex for hiding Conner for all these years? Though Clark probably had a matching expression to Lex's, he was sure. He still hadn't quite recovered. He wondered if he ever would.

After Conner was tucked away in bed, illuminated with the coolest dragon nightlight, and secret panel slid shut, Lex took Clark into the family room.

"Drink?" Lex asked, walking to the small fridge in there. "Water, soda, milk, orange juice, coffee, tea?"

Clark glanced at the alcohol bottles that seemed to be gathering dust. "Beer, please."

Lex looked flummoxed for moment, then he rummaged in a cabinet. "Do you mind it warm? I'm afraid the last time I had it, I had European guests and they liked it that way."

"Warm is fine." Actually, it wasn't, but Clark could cool down beer just as easily as he could cool down a flame-heated room. "Are you okay?"

Lex brought the bottles over and sat down on the couch next to Clark. "From the fire? Yes. You know me, I heal quickly. Thank you for taking care of Kon." He hesitated. "I, uh... might have made a mistake there. Please don't take him from me."

"What? A mistake?" Clark blinked. He'd loved the day with Conner. Too much, probably. He wasn't going to take Lex's child from him, though. He didn't even know what gave Lex that idea.

Lex grimaced and turned on the tv, flipping to a pre-recorded new segment. Well, entertainment segment masquerading as news. "Superman's love child!" The anchor was reporting, accompanied by pictures of Clark flying off holding Conner in his arms.

"With as many kids as I rescue, you'd think they wouldn't jump so quickly to that conclusion." Clark shook his head and sipped his beer.

"He looks a lot like you," Lex said softly.

"Yeah, Mom was pulling out the photo albums while we were there." Clark gathered up his nerve. "He _is_ mine, isn't he?"

Lex turned off the tv and took a sip of his own beer, frowning briefly at the taste, then drinking again. "Ours," he finally said. "Conner has DNA from both you and me. I hadn't anticipated how much he was going to look like you. It's like I'm not in there at all."

"He has your eyes," Clark responded, looking at Lex's and wondering at the depths behind them.

Lex snorted. "They're bluer. Mine are more blue-green hazel. Kon's eyes look like Superman's pure blue."

Clark shrugged. He thought they looked like Lex's, though Lex was right in the technical details. As always. "Whe---"

Lex held up a hand and cut him off.

"Daddy? I love you." Conner's voice came through a hidden speaker near them.

Clark's eyebrows raised.

"Child monitor," Lex murmured. He leaned over, grabbed a remote off a side-table, and pressed a button on it. "Love you too, CJJ. Sleep well." He clicked the button again. "He'll do that three or four times before he goes to sleep. It's our compromise for him not wandering out of the room after being tucked in."

"You've really been a father to him," Clark said wonderingly.

"You're surprised," Lex noted wryly.

"Well, yes." Clark gave a quick grin. "You hid him well."

Lex shrugged, his expression going dark. "I didn't want him to be a Luthor. Plus... it's been hard to hide his abilities. He's too young to lie."

Hide him instead of teaching him to lie. Clark's parents had done both as well as they could. They didn't have architects that could make secret rooms, or have labs hidden in the middle of the city.

"How... um," Clark couldn't quite finish that. _"How did you make him?"_ just didn't quite seem like an appropriate question for a child. "When did you do it?" He winced a little at that one too, but let it get out.

Lex took a long pull from his beer, his mouth on the lip of the bottle in a way that reminded Clark of the old waters in the castle. He hurriedly took another sip of his.

"It was seven years ago when---"

"Kon is only four!"

Lex glared. "Who's telling this? It was seven years ago after the annulment to Lady Anna. Before she tried to kill me, she'd had an abortion."

Clark winced. It hadn't been confirmed, but the rumor had made all the tabloids.

"My child, killed because she hated me." Lex's eyes were dark and haunted. "I decided then that I would never allow it to happen again. But I still wanted a child... So I skipped the women and went for the labs."

Lex had always wanted a child. It had always baffled Clark, who hadn't really thought much about kids of his own. Even now, while he thought he was falling for Conner, he still didn't know what all the fuss was about them. He liked kids well enough, but he didn't understand why people were so focused on them. Maybe it was because he was adopted. Or he just wasn't one of those people. Lex, though, Lex had always been. Suddenly, all the bad marriages made more sense. Lex had abominable choice in women... but he'd never been after the women, he'd been after the potential for kids. Maybe that's why the marriages all failed.

"I could have had eggs from any woman I wanted. I could have had the most brilliant scientist, the most creative artist. It didn't appeal. I wanted my child to grow up with more than just me. I didn't trust those women, any woman, even if it would just be her egg."

That was a bit paranoid, but knowing Lex, it made sense.

"So I thought of you."

Clark closed his eyes. Again, that was Lex. "You wanted a child with super powers."

Lex snorted, the laughter emerging briefly before he quieted again, though the grin stayed on his lips. "Believe it or not, that wasn't my first thought. Though I'll admit that when I did think of it a few minutes later it was a great incentive for following through. Though there were the draw-backs on that as well. But... I had to. Once I thought of you, I had to. The science to do it, though, took another few years. Which was incredibly quick, all things considered, but I had a lot of people on it." Lex paused. "Made a lot of the money back in licensing after I marketed it," he reflected. "A lot of people want same sex DNA mixes. That was the easy part, actually. The kryptonian/human mix was harder." His face turned remote again and he went back to his beer.

It hadn't been his first thought. Clark remembered years ago, with him and Lex being best friends and hanging out together. Laughing in the Beanery as they drank bad coffee, playing pool in the castle, lounging in the loft and talking about destiny. Clark still had the foil Lex had given him, and he'd anguished over the unintended irony of it. Or maybe it had been intended. Lex had always been a cipher, his intentions never quite clear and his motives suspect. The one thing that had been true was that Lex had been fascinated with him, and Clark had worshiped him back.

Once Lex had been toppled off the artificial pedestal, Clark had run from the disappointment, but Lex had simply shifted gears, and kept his focus on Clark. Destructively so.

Changing his focus from Clark to a child by Clark... that seemed to have worked better. Five years of Lex being good, Lex changing his company, Lex giving up his military contracts. As under-handed as the process had been, Clark couldn't be too angry. Though...

Clark slanted a look at Lex. "Just how did you get my DNA anyhow?"

"Um..." Lex shifted, looking away from Clark.

Then through the speakers, there was the sound of thrashing and a cut of sound of pain.

In an instant, Lex was up and dashing to Conner's room. Clark was right behind him. The only reason he didn't go faster was he wasn't sure of the switches for getting into the room.

On the bed, Conner was having a seizure. His limbs were thrashing and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Lex knelt down next to him and didn't touch Conner. He threw out an arm to keep Clark from getting too close. "Let him alone. It only lasts a few minutes."

A few minutes were a lifetime. Clark couldn't stand just waiting and watching while somebody was in pain. He'd had to do it before, but it was never easy. Knowing it was his son... Clark had to admit, there was an extra layer of anguish he'd never known before.

After the worrisome minutes were up, Conner went limp and Lex gathered him into his arms. He rocked him gently and crooned wordless reassurance.

Clark stood there, helpless and useless but unable to move away.

"Daddy." Conner finally spoke, his voice a bare sound.

"I'm here," Lex reassured.

"It's not supposed o happen," Conner said, his young voice puzzled and afraid. "Not after a treatment. Not now."

Lex closed his eyes, anguish in every line of his face and body. "The treatment was interrupted. The fire."

"Oh... yeah." Conner was silent for a bit. "Will I have to have another one?" Despite his obvious bravery, his voice trembled a bit.

"No," Lex whispered. "No, there won't be any more treatments. Not like that." A tear slipped out from the corner of his eye.

Clark wanted to wipe it away. He wanted to join them.

He knew he didn't have the right. Silently, he backed away and left the room.

In the family room, Clark sat on the couch and stared at his hands on his knees.

He hadn't given much thought to what Lex was doing with the kryptonite and his son. He'd shied away from thinking about it. Lex had done human experiments before, admittedly mostly for his government contracts.

Clark had written a few scathing articles on just what was the government doing sponsoring human experiments anyhow. So much for American being the representative of truth and justice. But then, it hadn't been that way for a long time. Wealth and private interests ruled, allowing the rich to do what they wanted, and the divide between the rich and poor was growing even wider. Clark feared where things were going but had little ability to do anything about it. He rescued people. That was what he did.

Lex... Lex was one of those rich people doing what he wanted to. And what he wanted, apparently, was a child. His child and Clark's. But there was something wrong. Something very wrong, and Lex was trying to fix it. Trying... and it didn't look like he was succeeding.

Clark swallowed and tried not to let the fear overwhelm him. How could he fear this much for somebody he'd just met?

It was almost an hour before Lex came wearily in. "He's asleep," he said tiredly and then sat down next to Clark.

Clark handed him a cold bottle of beer.

With a brief attempt at a grin, which was an abject failure, Lex took the beer and drank deep.

They sat there in silence for several minutes.

Finally, Lex spoke. "He's dying. He's been dying ever since he was born. I've tried everything, and beyond everything, and the most I can do is postpone it. It just..." He lifted a hand and dropped it. "I'm not in the top ranks of millionaires anymore, though that's well hidden from the public. Almost all my fortune has gone into finding something to cure Conner. But there are things that money can't buy."

Clark's heart ached. He wasn't sure if he had the right, but he lifted his arm and settled it over Lex's shoulders, drawing Lex close to him.

Lex didn't protest the familiarity, though he didn't relax into Clark.

"What's wrong?" Clark asked.

Lex sighed, a long and despairing sound. "Kryptonians and humans are oil and water. The DNA tests did fine in all the preliminary research, and in the initial trials... but none of the trials were actual children. They were simulations and cultures. When it was time to make a baby, everything seemed to be just fine, and he grew just fine in the artificial womb. But once he was out... his DNA is unraveling. I know that doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense scientifically or biologically. But it's doing it. Everything I can do only binds it for a short time. The kryptonite was my last resort. It's been working for the last year, but only for about three months at a time, then we have to repeat it, and Conner comes out of each treatment weaker than the last. Even if there hadn't been the fire, I was thinking this would be the last one. I probably wouldn't have held to that, though... there just isn't anything else. We're out of options."

Clark contemplated this. Lex was the ultimate mad scientist, even if he left a lot of it to the people he hired, and when things went wrong, as they often did, it was other people who got hurt. This time, it was his son. His and Clark's.

"Why didn't you come to me?"

Lex huffed, a fraction of his normal disdainful noise. "What could you have done?"

It was true that Clark was no scientist. And while he had resources, they probably didn't come close to Lex's and what Lex could do. But there was something he did have... "I can ask the Fortress."

"Your Kyrptonian ice computer? It can't heal. If it could heal, then Chloe wouldn't have a limp, and Lois wouldn't have spent six months in the hospital."

Clark winced. It was true, Lex wasn't the only one who left hurt people along his wake. "The Fortress doesn't do very well with humans – it doesn't understand them. But it _is_ good with Kryptonians. It's the only reason I lived through last year. And five years ago." Kon was four. Four and almost five. While Clark was in the Fortress slowly recovering, his son was being born.

Lex turned his head to look at Clark, mingled hope and fear of that same hope showing clear on his face. "Kon is half-human."

"Between you and the Fortress, I believe you can work it out." Clark had to believe it. The alternative was unthinkable.

The look on Lex's face, the naked hope and gratitude, mixed with the fear that it may not work out, it reminded Clark of the days when they were young and Lex used to look at him that way, wondering in Clark's friendship and always afraid that Clark would leave him. As Clark eventually did.

With an intake of his breath, and a wonder that he was doing this, Clark leaned over and kissed Lex.

The response was minimal. Lex didn't shove him away, and he did kiss back, but it wasn't much of anything. Disappointed, Clark drew back.

He was unprepared for Lex's attack.

After Clark sat back, Lex narrowed his eyes at him, then he lunged forward. He knelt with a leg on the couch and one over Clark's thighs, a hand bracing on the couch and the other buried in Clark's hair, his tongue deep in Clark's mouth and demanding Clark's full participation.

Clark gave it willingly, if a bit stunned. He put his hands around Lex's back and held him tightly, straining upwards to try and push past Lex's tongue to get inside Lex's mouth himself.

They wrestled together, tongues dueling and bodies locked together. Clark sliding along the couch until he was flat on it and Lex on top of him.

Years and years of pent-up frustration, along with the anguish they shared, and the hint of tenderness that lay behind it all.

Lex drew back. He blocked Clark's attempt to reclaim his lips and he stared down at him intently, searching his eyes.

"I swear," Lex growled, "if you're messing with me, I will destroy you."

Clark replied with the first thing that popped to his mind. "You can't – you don't have the funding or resources anymore.

Lex was stunned for a moment, then he burst into laughter, sinking onto Clark's chest and curling up there. It took him a bit to wind down.

"Not entirely true," Lex finally said. "I have things in basements that I could dust off." He traced Clark's shirt cuff with one hand, circling the seam.

Clark kept his hand over Lex, centered in the middle of his back, holding him not too tightly but with surety. "I'm not messing with you."

Lex closed his eyes and sighed, resting his head tucked next to Clark's. He was silent for a while, then said, "Thank you for rescuing Conner today. When I saw that explosion..."

"Did you find out what happened?" Clark stroked Lex reassuringly.

"Insurance money," Lex said with disgust.

"But you own the building?" Clark made the sentence a question, hovering between surprise and disbelief.

"No I don't – not directly. Subsidiaries, and apparently this one was buried too far down. The building is vacant because it was condemned but nobody had gotten around to tearing it down—"

"Imagine that," Clark murmured, not caring that he was interrupting.

Lex ignored him, "and the paper owners decided to rush the process. They were so clumsy about it, though, that the police arrested them that afternoon."

"And you had nothing to do with it."

"Actually, I haven't. Though I do intend to see they don't get out with any cheap sentence. Irresponsible idiots."

Clark didn't feel like saying otherwise. When he thought of how Conner might have been trapped in there.... It was one of those moments in life where he was grateful for coincidence that felt like fate. Like his being found by his parents, or his meeting with Lex on the bridge. They happened too often for him to totally dismiss them.

"I'm glad to have met Conner, even if the beginning was a little exciting. Like father, like son, apparently."

Lex snorted and sat up, running his hands over his clothing and soothing it back into place. "Likewise."

Reluctantly, Clark also sat up. "You would have introduced him to me soon enough anyhow."

"Humm?" Lex made the inquisitive noise also sound skeptical. "Where did you get that idea from?"

"Your son," Clark answered with a raised eyebrow. "Apparently I was going to be his fifth birthday gift... or did you have another second daddy in mind?"

Lex went very, very still. Then he swore softly. When he was done, he took a deep breath in, then let it out. "I'm glad you two met today or I would have been in such deep trouble in March. Up the creek without a paddle, for certain. I'd completely forgotten about that."

"Forgotten?" Clark was somewhere between amused and offended. Closer to amused.

"I told him that when he was barely three! That was almost two years ago. Who expects children that young to remember something like that?"

"Your son, apparently," Clark said dryly.

Lex rolled his eyes. Then he went serious. "You've seen him as a mostly healthy, active child. A lot of that is from the kryptonite experiments, and yes, I'm dubious about them too, but they're working, as nothing else had. Before that... we tried everything conventional, and unconventional, but he was weak and constantly in pain. He would have some days where I was sure that would be the last day...." Lex gulped. "That day, he was dying. Again, but that day was very bad. I was desperate. I was looking for anything at all that would encourage him not to give up, so he could have something to look forward to and to try to live. His fifth birthday seemed like a good milestone to reach for." Lex paused in reflection. "I invented the kryptonite treatments a few months later and he got better. For awhile, but it was so much more than it had been."

"Does your healing accelerate in the presence of kryptonite?" Clark asked, trying not to shudder.

"Sometimes. It definitely increased in magnitude when I moved to Smallville. Since I hadn't known about it before then, I had no baselines. Though later on, I found the baselines my dad had been keeping."

Clark didn't withhold his shudder for what that remark said. Lex's dad had been a monster behind the smile. His charisma had most people forgetting it, even those, like himself, who should have known better. The cancer that had killed him had done the world a favor.

"I wouldn't have had Conner if Dad was still around," Lex said quietly. "As much as I wanted a child... I don't think I would have risked that."

There was nothing Clark could say about that. He moved several subjects back in topic to get to the present. "When should we go to the Fortress?"

Lex sighed. "Tomorrow. Let Conner have a good night's sleep tonight, and we can head out to your Fortress tomorrow morning." He settled against Clark and tucked himself against the other man like it was right and natural.

"Sure," Clark readily agreed, putting his arm around Lex again. It felt right. Never done before, but this is what fate had been leading them to all those years ago. Just a few hiccups in-between.

...

"Wow! This is neat!"

As soon as Superman put Kon down, the child was off and gone. Dashing through the Fortress, running from one ice structure to another. The exclamations and excitement could be heard across the chambers.

Clark raised an eyebrow at Lex.

Lex shrugged. "You were the one who told him he could explore freely."

"I didn't think he would be quite so... quick."

"Get used to it," Lex advised. "You do have the dangerous areas blocked off, correct?"

Probably not as blocked as they should be. Clark raised his voice. "Fortress, can you please seal the workshop and the museum? And any other place you think might be dangerous for a four-year old."

"That would be the entire structure," the deep voice intonated back.

Lex blinked. "It has a sense of a humor?"

"As your language is remarkably deficient in gender-neutral pronouns, I will overlook the potential insult and answer that yes, I've been known to emulate emotions. " Before Lex could respond, the computer went on. "Kal-El, the scanner shows Kryptonian DNA in the boy, as well as human. Is that your son?"

"He is." Clark swallowed after the statement. He wasn't used to that yet, though he looked forward to getting used to it. "This is Lex Luthor, his other father and my... um, my boyfriend."

Lex raised both eyebrows and a grin played on his lips.

Clark shrugged. He wasn't sure how else to put it. It had been rather sudden.

"It has been awhile since Lex Luthor tried to destroy you. Despite what one might think, trying to kill a partner is not a courtship."

Lex winced. "I was... angry. And misguided. I thought Kal-El was an alien invader."

"He is."

"Hey!"

A chuckle escaped from Lex. "He's more interested in saving the world than in destroying or ruling it. It is a worthwhile goal, but one that I was not sure of for many years."

Clark had known it, but it still hurt to hear it. Lex caught the look and shrugged, apologizing without taking it back.

"Considering the difference in ability, and the mixed messages from the corrupted databases sent with the child, it is not surprising there would be fear. I had advised against such a public image."

"Better the public image and time to trust than hidden and always feared," Lex responded.

There was a howl down the corridor.

Clark snapped his head up, but Lex had a hand out. "That was disappointment, not hurt. I think he found one of the locked doors."

"The museum," the computer confirmed. "The child can see through the walls. I am rendering them opaque now."

"That's not going to help," Lex warned. "What was seen can't be unseen." Sure enough, a moment later came another frustrated howl.

"I'll go over and let him in as long as he stays with me," Clark said. "Fortress... there are medical problems with Conner's mixed heritage. Please work with Lex to find a cure for Conner."

"Certainly, Kal-El." The computer's voice switched tones slightly to indicate a chance of addressee. "What are the medical issues, Lex Luthor?"

Knowing he wouldn't be able to contribute much, Clark left them to it and went to hunt down his son.

"Want in!" Conner pointed at the opaque wall where there couldn't be seen a door anymore.

"Sure." Clark grinned and put his hand on the wall. The walls thinned to transparency again and a portion of it dissolved to an opening.

"Cooool!!!" The voice was left behind in the corridor as the small body of the child blurred and disappeared into the room.

Laughing, Clark speeded up and followed him.

For several minutes, Conner was satisfied with just running around and around in the room, circling around the various displays and playing his own game of hide and seek that was just running and exploring. Clark followed him but not too closely to ruin Conner's own game. Conner kept turning back and grinning at him periodically, though, so he knew Clark was there and was happy. That made Clark happy too. He'd never had a son before, never wanted one. He hung out with kids on the charity circuit, but he'd never just let loose and played with one.

Even as a kid himself, he hadn't played with abandon, always cautious of his strength and revealing too much. He was glad Lex had raised Conner without that sense of worry. Love and freedom both. He himself had always had the love, but not always the freedom. Lex... Lex probably had had neither. Or rather, warped versions of both. Clark supposed that hiding your child away from the public for the first five years of his life wasn't exactly normal either, but Lex had done his best.

After Kon had finished dashing around, then he wanted to start exploring in earnest.

"Ah!" Clark got between him and a phase wave generator. He held out his hand.

After a moment where solemn blue eyes looked up at him, Kon reached his little hand up and took Clark's index and ring fingers in a tight grip. Then he smiled.

Clark melted at that smile.

"Okay, Kon, let's head over and see what's in here." He described the objects and how he'd gotten them as they meandered around the room. He didn't know if Conner understood any of it, but the child seemed happy to be with him and seemed to enjoy it, and that was good enough.

They got to a display with a kryptonite ray gun, carefully shielded, and Clark paused in his telling. "Er..."

"Daddy!" Conner exclaimed happily. "This's Daddy's!"

"Um..." How scary was it that Lex's son recognized it? What did Lex do, take his kid into the labs with him? Probably. Wait... did that mean Lex _did_ still have some ray guns around? Of course he did. Clark sighed.

"Yes, the person you're calling your boyfriend is the one who invented that which nearly killed you." The Fortress' voice floated through the air.

Clark sighed. He'd known at some point the Fortress was going to needle him about it, but he'd hoped the alien computer would wait until they were by themselves.

"Where, where, where?" Conner was looking all around, trying to find the source of the voice.

Clark knelt down to be on more of a level. "That was the For... the building. The building talks."

"Buil..."

"House," the Fortress put in. "This house talks."

Blue eyes went even wider than they had been. "Cool," he breathed. "Daddy has robots that talk, and some cars, but not a house."

Lex had cars that talked? Clark bit his lip to keep from laughing.

"I'm a special house," the Fortress said.

"But where are you?" The boy was still looking around.

There was a flicker in the air next to them, and a translucent hologram of an older man in robes appeared.

Clark blinked. The Fortress had never done such a thing in his presence before.

The image knelt. "Is this better, Kon-El?"

"Wow!" Conner let go of Clark's hand and dashed through the hologram. Then he ran back and did it again.

"Conner..." Clark wanted to sink into the ground.

The hologram image smiled. "Boys will be boys. It is okay Kal-El."

"Kal-El. You called me Kon-El. What does it mean?"

"Kal-El is his name from his people. Kal is his name and El is the house name – the family name. I heard your father call you Conner, Kon for short, so I used that as your base and attached the family name to it. This image is that of your grandfather, Kal's father, Jor-El."

Clark raised his eyebrows. The images of Jor-El he'd seen before had been of a young man a lot like him. This was an older man, though not old and wrinkly. More ... well, more his own age now, though he didn't look like him anymore. More studious, solemn, with lighter colored hair and blue eyes. They looked like Conner's eye color, actually. He was dressed in what resembled a formal lab coat with the House of El symbol on the right breast. Perhaps Clark should have asked the Fortress more about his parents. He'd shied away from it with all the odd messages that had been left in his spaceship and the caves.

"Another name! I like more names. Daddy says names are nice and I can choose my own," Conner said, clapping his hands together.

That was the fourth time in the last two days that Kon'd said nearly the same thing. Lex must really have emphasized the names and choosing to Kon. Considering how Lex's own father brought him up with an emphasis on the Luthor name above all, Clark figured it was understandable. He just hoped it didn't warp Conner in a different way.

"Indeed," the Fortress said. "Come. I have some games from home you might like."

The hologram walked down the hall and the child followed, periodically skipping in and out of the image.

Clark bemusedly followed.

"Even though this is your son, Lex Luthor seems to have his affection and training. Are you sure you want them having access to my resources?" The Fortress' voice didn't come from the hologram ahead, but was projected near to Clark and soft enough for nobody to overhear. The Fortress was probably holding a conversation with Lex, Conner, and Clark all at the same time, plus working on whatever it worked on when Clark wasn't around. Multi-tasking was a computer's prerogative.

"He is my son," Clark replied. "Yes. I want him to live, and grow, and be who he will be. Who that turns out to be depends on him."

"The raising of a child can influence who they are. The ship you came to Earth in hid you from three people before you saw the Kents."

"Really?" Clark asked in surprise.

"Your parents would not leave that to chance," the Fortress said stiffly.

"Huh." He wondered if one of the people had been Lionel Luthor, out wandering the fields looking for Lex. Clark put that to one side to think about for later. "I am involved in Conner's life now, and so is my mother. Lex himself has changed and I believe he's a good father."

"A father who raises his children with things that can kill them."

"Lots of people live with guns in their home, and not all of them keep them under lock and seal. It's a matter of training and watching and trust." Clark knew where every Kent gun was, from the shotgun on the family room wall to the ones in the barn. Not to mention that a lot of farm equipment wasn't exactly kid-safe either. That argument didn't hold any water with him.

"The only reason Lex Luthor has changed is because his focus is currently on his son. What happens if his son dies? What would he do then?"

Clark swallowed. He could picture the rage and destruction that the Fortress was suggesting. Lex was capable of it. "He will grieve. And I will be there for him and also will grieve. If I am with him, Lex will have another focus. However, if you work with Lex, Conner will _not_ die, and I'll be with both of them, and we can create a new life together." Clark was determined on that. He wanted Conner, and he wanted Lex, both of them. He watched Conner playing with the hologram and knew he wanted it all.

"Don't you believe a person can change?" Clark challenged the Fortress. "Lex was my best friend once. Then he changed, and I changed. Are you saying neither of us can ever change again? That we're only allowed one change in a life and no more? I think people can do what they want to, and that includes change.

"I've been studying Lex for the last few years, researching him, trying to figure out why he's changed. I didn't know about Conner. But I _did_ know he'd changed. If it's because of Kon, that's fine. That's a perfectly valid reason to change. And I want to encourage that change and be there with Lex and Conner in the future."

There was a short silence.

"A cure will not be easy," the Fortress finally said.

Clark's heart lurched and lifted at the same time. The Fortress had accepted Lex and Conner, thank goodness. However... "What is the problem?"

The hologram stood up, Conner still hunched over the game. "I think it is time for a nap, young Kon-El."

Even Clark knew that the lack of a protest meant that it really was time. He stepped forward and picked up his son. "Come on, slugger. Let's get you to a room."

He met Lex at his bedroom. While the Fortress had complete control over the elements in itself, it couldn't make a blanket or pillows. Imitate them, yes, but there was nothing like the familiarity of an actual quilt pulled over and feathers plumped under the head.

Lex tucked Conner in and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Rest well, my heart."

They quietly left the room. The Fortress could monitor just as well as a Nanny cam, so neither parent was worried.

They went back to the control room, where the Fortress had made some furniture out of the crystals.

Clark noticed the lack of couches with a roll of his eyes. Acceptance wasn’t welcome, apparently. Instead, he moved to the table but didn't sit. "Want pizza?"

Lex smiled easily. "Sure."

Clark zoomed out to Iceland where there was a pizza store he liked that always had some ready. They always tried to give it to him for free, but he insisted on paying. He was back in just the few minutes that it took them for him to say hi and get the pizza from them.

Still wearing the smile, Lex looked at the store brand on the box and his lips twitched. "Advantages to being Superman."

"It's good pizza," Clark insisted with a blush.

"I'm sure. Did you remember napkins?" Lex reached for a slice without waiting for the answer.

Clark got them from his "kitchen" cupboard where he kept normal things and also a couple of cans of soda. He returned to the table and grabbed a slice of the pizza. "The Fortress says things are complicated."

Lex's eyes shaded. "You were right – the Fortress doesn't know human biology. Humans and our physics are as strange to it, as Kryptonian biology and physics is to us. It's amazing to me that you're as human-seeming as you are. Internally, everything appears to be the same just as it is on the outside – arms, legs, eyes, heart, lungs, stomach, nervous system – but the details are... sideways. It's like building blocks that should be cubes are octagons instead. A spiral has corners. I think you must be from an alternate universe, and not just from a different world."

"I've wondered that myself sometimes," Clark said. He took another bite of his pizza and chewed and swallowed, while thinking about the problem. "Conner exists, so it is possible."

"Yes," Lex said softly. "Yes, and that gives me hope. If we were completely incompatible, Conner would not be here at all. It's simply a matter of finding the right connection and making it."

"You're the smartest man in the world," Clark said confidently. "I believe you can do it."

Lex gave him a skeptical glance. "I am not. I sometimes _hire_ the smartest people in the world, but that's not me."

Clark smiled and ate his pizza. "You are. But it doesn't matter. You'll still do it."

...

Conner's fifth birthday came and went. They celebrated on the farm, where Conner spent most weekends, getting to know the horses and cows, and being spoiled by his grandmother. The weekends also had the added benefit of getting Lex out of the office on a regular basis. Conner still had health problems, but with his family around him, he took the setbacks as cheerfully as he took most things and always bounced back.

Lex was delegating more of LexCorp, moving to the side of things and watching more than directing. He still spent time in his labs, and seemed to be happier there than in his corporate office. He spent almost an equal amount of time at the Fortress, flown out there by Superman and debating Kyrptonian science with an alien computer.

Metropolis was occasionally treated to the sight of a small dark-haired child flying through the air next to Superman, both of them laughing and playing together. Not unsurprisingly, the newspapers dubbed him Superboy, though no press member had yet met him. Lois was surprisingly tight-lipped on the subject, and Chloe similarly.

Clark was found more often in Lex's penthouse than he was in his apartment. Lex even had rearranged things to give him his own room and his own office. His room was mostly storage, though, and he claimed portions of Lex's room instead.

A little over a year from the explosion, Lex and the Fortress announced that they had solved the problem and could fix Conner's wayward DNA.

"No more treatments?" Kon asked.

"One more. One last one, then no more treatments," Lex answered, and held his son close.

Clark stepped forward and held both of them.

Family. Something Clark hadn't even thought was possible before. Lex, Conner, and himself. With his mom and Lois and Chloe on the extended family side. They were happy together in a way he'd never imagined, and shared their life together. Conner was constantly a source of wonder and mystery. Lex was a constant surprise. The person Clark had known briefly in his teen years proved to only be a fragment of what Lex could be when Lex was happy and secure and with a family. His ambitions in life had been completely derailed by Conner, and Lex swore he couldn't be happier. Clark believed him, because he felt the same.

"I love you, Lex," Clark murmured. "And I love you too, Kon."

"Love you, Daddies," Conner said automatically and freely.

"Love you both," Lex responded with deliberation and sincerity.

And life went on.

 

* * *

END

**Author's Note:**

> Final set of all Clexmas gifts is at: <http://clexmas.livejournal.com/90568.html>


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